Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, has been keeping his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, informed of the details of EU meetings for years, the Washington Post has reported.
Szijjártó is a key player in Viktor Orbán’s Russia-friendly government in Budapest, which has a track record of supporting Moscow’s interests within the European Union and NATO, including attempts to thwart support packages for Ukraine.
Hungary is currently using its veto to effectively block a vital €90 million EU loan for Kyiv and Orbán has said he will never allow Ukraine to join the 27-nation bloc.
According to an unnamed European security official quoted by the Washington Post, “every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table” thanks to the Hungarian diplomatic chief’s strong ties to Lavrov.
Szijjártó, who has made 16 official visits to Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, would regularly make “phone calls during breaks at EU meetings to provide his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, with ‘live reports on what’s been discussed’ and possible solutions,” the paper reported the source as saying.
‘Fake news’
The Hungarian minister dismissed the report as “fake news” when confronted with it on social media platform X by his opposite number in Poland, Radosław Sikorski. He claimed it was part of an attempt to influence Hungarians ahead of a crunch election next month.
“You are telling lies in order to support [Hungarian opposition] Tisza Party to have a pro-war puppet government in Hungary,” Szijjártó posted. “You will not have it!”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said the news that “Orbán’s people” allegedly inform the Kremlin about EU goings-on should come as no surprise.
“We’ve long suspected it,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I speak only when absolutely necessary and say only as much as I need to.”
The news comes as accusations have emerged that Russian intelligence proposed staging an assassination attempt on Orbán in a bid to boost his popularity ahead of the April 12 parliamentary polls.
The Hungarian prime minister, described by one Western official as “one of Russia’s best assets,” is faced with the most serious challenge yet to his 16-year rule, and has sought to make the war in Ukraine a key dividing line during the campaign.
His main rival, Péter Magyar, has vowed to reverse Budapest’s pro-Kremlin course if his Tisza party is elected. Tisza led in polls at the start of the campaign, though recent surveys put the two candidates neck and neck.
Orbán’s resurgence is seen as a result of aggressive campaigning in which he has cast Magyar as a puppet of Kyiv who would drag Hungary into war with Russia. Magyar has dismissed Orbán’s campaign as laughable “propaganda”, but Tisza has nonetheless trodden cautiously on issues such as Ukraine’s possible EU accession.